Inkjet printing produces wet images from which moisture may need to be removed to preserve image quality, particularly at higher printing speeds. Inkjet printers ordinarily include a printhead servicing station which typically includes printhead wipers, a source of printhead servicing fluid and printhead caps, some or all of which may be mounted on a sled or other moveable support to bring the service station into and out of operating proximity to the printheads to be serviced. Printhead servicing intervals should be minimized to correspondingly reduce printing downtime. The adverse results of frequent printhead servicing intervals are particularly acute in high throughput printing.
According to one aspect of the present invention, a method of operating an inkjet printer comprises forming an image on a media sheet by ejecting ink from an orifice array of an inkjet printhead at a print zone, capturing moist atmosphere from said printed image at a moisture removal zone and conducting moist atmosphere to said orifice array.
According to another aspect of the present invention, an inkjet printing mechanism is provided including means for removing moisture from a printed sheet of media and means for conducting moisture removed from said printed sheet to an inkjet orifice array at a print zone.